Data Privacy Day

Tags: Important Days

Data Privacy Day is observed across the world on 28 January every year.

An overview of the news

• This year's theme is "Think Privacy First".

• The primary objective of organising this day is to sensitise the general public about data privacy and promote the dissemination of privacy practices and principles.

• The day encourages all stakeholders to fulfil their responsibility to develop a culture of privacy.

Efforts made to ensure data privacy and security in India

• Right to privacy was upheld as a fundamental right by the Supreme Court in KS Puttaswamy vs Union of India in 2017, following which the central government appointed a Justice BN Srikrishna committee to propose legislation to discipline data protection Was.

• The committee submitted its report and draft to the government in the form of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018.

• It was amended by the Parliament in the year 2019 and this new bill was named as 'The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019'.

Security measures available on apps like WhatsApp

• Two-Step Verification: This provides an additional layer of security to their end-to-end encrypted messaging account.

• Touch ID or Face ID Lock: This feature is available in various types of phones manufactured by Apple, Samsung, Google etc. Some phones also offer an under-screen fingerprint sensor, which uses ultrasound to image the fingerprint.

• Forward Limit: Applications like WhatsApp have set a limit of forwarding messages on five chats at a time. Thus, it restricts the exchange of information and prohibits the spread of misinformation.